Should Be Called Spring Joy


First official day of spring, yes. I think this Sedum, "Autumn Joy" could just as well be called "Spring Joy." It looks wonderfully succulent, icy and warm at the same time.



Yesterday evening, as I covered my peas because of threatening frost (clear night), a neighbor from down the block stopped and gave me my first ever NYC gardener to gardener "poo-poo." I was poo-pooed for putting my peas in as early as I did. I enjoyed it, actually -the gardener to gardener exchange, the confidence, the wink.

She said she was surprised at how early I had put my peas in. I said, well they were getting large in the cold frame and you know they'll be fine, but better safe than sorry after all, putting on the plastic. She said, yeah, they'll be fine with the plastic and, well it'll look good as always. Then mentioned her tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers will be hanging upside down this year to keep them from the chickens. I said, keep me posted on that!

I don't think there's another house quite like hers in all of Brooklyn. The house is set back all the way, so that its 90% front yard. The wood-framed house is maybe 500 square feet. Its cute as hell with its traditional roof line and nice garden. And chickens!

How To Make an $8 Loaf of Bread or Alice Waters' March on Washington



I left a comment on Garden Rant yesterday about Alice Waters on 60 minutes. My facetiousness aside, I had a serious point or two. One was about the "Victory Garden" thing.

It is time those in the media stop calling a vegetable garden a "Victory garden." That's it really. Why are they recalling WWII wartime vegetable planting?

The U.S. government (and U.K) asked its citizens to produce some of their own food to make up for shortfalls affecting the agricultural industry supply during the war. Eleanor Roosevelt had one planted at the White House. There were complaints from the Ag industry, but by and large, the effort was popular and successful.

Much of this gardening ceased after the war. I'm sure the Ag business did what it could to promote this change through lobbying and advertising. Not growing some of our own food has been a 20th century invention, at least for most of us. Lifestyle changes, yes, but also the promotion of leisure and solid-state (copyright!) landscapes created a vision of wealth and prosperity that used to have the cornucopia, wheat bundles, dead fish and fowl, and grape vines as its symbol.

It does seem that little motivates people more than the desire to attain or to mirror wealth and prosperity. What the local food movement, Alice Waters, organic movement (still a movement?), etc. has done is create a new conception of wealth and prosperity that is as old as they come. Some people don't like it because it calls into question many of the hard-earned symbols of their prosperity, and requires a different set of skills and knowledge, some long-forgotten cultural memory.

But let's remember that people have always grown vegetables for their sustenance. Poor and rich alike have grown, or had their gardener's grow, their own vegetables. Late day immigrants to big cities grow their own in buckets on concrete. Its economical and provides them with the vegetables they need for their culture's recipes.

So I wonder if our culture is forcing the "V" for victory instead of vegetable because there is a sense of cultural warfare -a largely middle, upper-middle class warfare. What is middle class? What do we aspire to? Are we golf-playing, micro-waving, lawn mowing, backyard pool party lounging with cocktails middle class or are we vegetable growing, every meal cooking, CSA joining, garden party with a glass of local wine middle class?

This is not a battle I am having and I believe this to be true of many of us. Of course, these activities are not exclusive of each other, but I can't quite shake the feeling that this middle-class identity war is what's going on. Thoughts?



Brooklyn Food Conference

I'd like to call your attention to an event that's happening right here in Brooklyn, NYC. Its called the Brooklyn Food Conference. Registration is free, and its all about growing food in the city, sustainability, farmers' markets, local agriculture, CSAs, healthy eating, restaurants that use local produce, farming in the region, and a lot more. Again, registration is free, so sign up at their website above. The conference is on Saturday, May 2nd in Park Slope.



Brooklyn Food Conference Logo

Garden Soil Testing


For any questions regarding the ESAC soil testing service, click on the link below. I have used this soil-testing service, and you can see how I put my sample together here and the results of my tests here. For other thoughts on lead in our soils, read this post and that post. See my page above for other testing services.
Brooklyn College Environmental Sciences Analytical Center SOIL TESTING SERVICE.
Any Questions:

Contact: Dr. Joshua Cheng
Phone: (718) 951-5000 ext. 2647
Fax: (718) 951-4753
Email: zcheng@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Brooklyn College Environmental Sciences Analytical Center
2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11210

Phyto Photo Philia

Tomato and basil seedlings inside the cold-frame.




When they sprouted, I was away in Philadelphia. It was a really warm weekend and I had plastic wrap draped over their seed beds. In 36 hours these guys were pale, leggy and curved under the plastic. My response was to get these guys out into the cold-frame as soon as possible. The bright light, occasional sunshine, and cooler night temperature kept stem length in check. They also started to develop their first set of leaves and stouter stems.


Now their stems are purpling and growing the fine hairs of maturity.


So far no sprouting of the arugula, or greens mixes. Its only been a couple of days.


Training the snap peas


I have broccoli starts in a variety of places, including these two: a perennial pot and wooden planter.


Last, but certainly not least, the over-wintered spinach. Looking good, but soon to be outnumbered by the sprouts of this spring's spinach.


Rain


A band of rain is on its way. I love the rain scented air on a mild day. I went outside and the drizzle had already begun. This is good, because it really has been dry. This month we've had about 3/4 inch of rain and normally we'd be near 2 1/2 inches. Let's hope this is not a sign of the season to come.

Image Courtesy of Wunderground.com


Spring

Oh warm sunny day on my spring break, there's little time and so much to do with you!

Garden's planted, watered. Only rose pruning left to do and this year I'm pruning hard!

Off to work in the studio then.

Drink later?

G&T please.

A Few Words

Saturday I planted the broccoli into their planter. I had extra, so I put some in a couple of perennial pots. I also planted the asian mix, the arugula, and the mesclun mix seeds in all the extra planters I had available. I put 2 inch mesh on top of every planter to keep squirrels from digging. The tomatoes are in the cold-frame, toughening up, getting fuzzy, purplish stems. 

So all the early season, cool weather veggies are in the ground.

On another note, I finally saw the News12 Brooklyn story about the man who got tazered outside my window.  They have a video where me and my neighbor are interviewed, but you might need some plugin to watch it.  I found out from my upstairs neighbor that he was apparently from the methadone clinic down the block that is advertised as a medical office. On the video you can see the man in front of my building and pacing, but surrounded by cops. Then they tazer him. They're not using the word tazer anymore, its like Kleenex for tissues. They're calling it a conducted energy device. Thats a mouth-full. Anyhow, News 12 used some of my posted photos in their story, for whatever its worth.

I Really Should Be Working


broccoli, tomatoes, basil

When did any day become solely about mundane gardening and posting?

Today I took out the watering can. That's it then, the official beginning. A new neighbor who saw me about asked if I was planning the garden. Planning?, I questioned smugly, I've already started. Peas right there, they survived the freeze last night and a ground assault by squirrels! Oh, who do I think I am?

I planted new pea seeds into the planters today since I learned they can be grown on top of one another. Also, squirrels! So on goes the mesh.




I planted spinach seeds in the spinach planter where some spinach has over-wintered.




The broccoli that I over-wintered is starting to get stout-stemmed.




And should I want to destroy something this year, it'd be this Yew tree that puts shade on the vegetable garden. The veggies need more sun, particularly in March and September. I secretly hoped the snow would weigh this guy down to his demise.




Compromise? Landlord, please take those dead trees we call telephone poles out of the front yard and I can put the veggies there, grow enough for the neighbors to share. Then the Yew will be a welcome shade giver to an area re-designated for perennials!


Sorry, webiworld, crocus on the march!

Mutterings on the Mutter (thats mooter to you ter)

One of the side trips of our 36 hours in Philadelphia was a return to the Mutter Museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. It is a small and gruesome display of medical maladies and oddities collected over the years. As was the case for me and my wife, the blown glass display cases and low lighting, not to mention the subject, leads the visitor towards feeling a little woozy. I was interested to go for a second time because they had a small exhibit on the effects of lead on humans throughout history.

I use lead white paint in the studio, but not so much that I should worry about it. However, I was interested to read about painters and makers of paint back in the day who became ill due to their exposure to lead. One symptom of their disease was limp wrists, leading me to speculate on the origin of the phrase "limp-wristed artist." There was also a section on the association of lead with Saturn and melancholia. This in mind, I read Goya's painting anew -this time it is melancholy devouring his offspring, melancholy destroying what it created.


As the exhibition winds down it crosses into lead as a poison and then its use as a pesticide. What? Yep, pesticide. Funny, so often you hear that pesticides were a product of WWI or WWII chemical industries. But previous generations were looking for pesticides of their own and lead was brewed into lead arsenate for their purpose. Apparently, we in the good ol' U S of A have used lead arsenate as late as 1988. Lead makes for a great pesticide partly because it sticks real good to the leaves, just as lead-based paints stick real good to the trim. As mentioned in a previous post, lead stays put in the soil and is taken up by leafy greens more than fruiting bodies.

A final display shows Mexican candy (lead sweetener???) and mentions that lead arsenate is still used in Mexico as a pesticide (but where else???). One thing I never understand is why all those kids are eating lead paint chips. I had no idea that lead mixed with acetic acid (lead acetate) created a sweet tasting substance. Anything sweet is good to a kid. But the adults, they even used it in wine!!! And skin creams, but that's another story.

By the way, as a painter I use the white pigment titanium dioxide more than the lead or zinc whites. This titanium pigment ends up in skin creams too, but also food products like cream cheese, mozzarella, and other must-be-super-white foods.

Recently I received a comment on my Bio page from a professor , Dr. Joshua (Zhongqi) Cheng, Director of the Environmental Sciences Analytical Center at CUNY Brooklyn. In our brief exchange, he expressed interest in getting the word out about his lab.

In a subsequent email, Dr. Cheng told me:

"My lab can analyze heavy metals for all kinds of samples (soil, plants, vegetables, sediments, etc.). Another lab I associate with can do hydrocarbons. The price for heavy metals are $10-20 per sample, depending on the number of samples."

These are exceptional prices for these services and done locally, supporting Brooklyn College employees. For those of us who garden in front and back yards with questionable histories, like the storage of CCA and Creosote treated telephone poles for instance, this can help create some peace of mind. I have asked Dr. Cheng for a list of lab services and pricing. If he agrees, I will add this info to the RESOURCES listing. I plan on sending him some samples of my soil soon.




Cloud Cover

Its late, I left work and what does the Columbus Circle CNN super screen say, oh its 37 degrees F. Hmm, seems kind of cloudy up there. Now Brooklyn, off the subway, hmm... I can see that its cloudy now. Doesn't feel that cold. Wind not much to complain about. Moon barely visible behind nature's row cover. I think its gonna be alright. 

Oh, hell. I got some plastic, just lay it over the peas. So thats what I did. But I think the clouds are staying and my intuition says no deep freeze. But I did pull in the tomato seedlings from the cold-frame. They've been living outside through the day and I pull em in at night if its going to freeze. They're toughening up this way, after their super growth spurt this past weekend on the warm windowsill.

Please Don't Freeze The Peas

Will it really freeze to 25 degrees F tomorrow night? Will the Sugar Ann Snap Peas hold up to this despicable, lone, one night, monstrous temperature drop? Shall I protect them with plastic sheets or leave them be? Oh, peas, you cause me such pains before I've even eaten you!

Oh, yes, I see the quince buds a swellin at the north end of Cadman Plaza Park. And the winter jasmine's pre-forsythia yellow blooming too.

Flower Wower

Before it is so long passed that it simply doesn't matter anymore, I thought I would get a few words in about my first ever trip to a flower show, this being the Philadelphia Flower Show, 2009. First, I must say that my wife and I had a nice time and we enjoyed seeing many of the flowers and plants. I enjoyed seeing the native plant displays, one of which mimicked a forest except that it was totally in bloom with white flowers. We also enjoyed our overnight in Philly, an easy town to get around and much to see on our two days that reached 70 degrees.

Of course, the flower show is a ritual celebration of winter's end and the coming of spring. However, when I thought, well that's not an interesting display or design, I had to remind myself, oh yeah, that's because its about getting all these flowers to bloom for this display, out of season and indoors. That is what it is about, folks. A brief note to the flower show policy wonks: don't allow boxwood in the displays anymore -it smells like urine, everywhere, all the time. Yuck.

Upon entry we encountered amongst the throngs of people a display of orchids, front and center (orchids somehow do prove one's horticultural bona fides, no?). Apparently these potted plants had been judged, and unaware of the criteria as I was, I had little understanding of good from best.



Beautiful as they were, many orchids struck me as similar to the spitting dinosaur from Jurassic Park 1. I could almost hear them spitting, "phhhlaaaaahh!"



Just across the way was this monster. Oh, boy -have you put the kids to bed?



The show had many specimens, ordinary and unusual. In the bulbs category, I found these:
Crocus Chrysanthus, "Goldilocks". I like how the blades of green become part of the floral display. Take that ordinary spring crocus!


There were many displays. This years "theme" was Italia or something like that, so Italian-inspired garden displays took up about a third of the floor space. There was even a display with opera singing going on. The largest display, photo below showing maybe a third of the entire display, was fully realized with tall flowering trees, shrubs and perennials.




Of course, this being Italy and all, there were many displays with fountains, like this one where a man is spitting on a babe.




Some displays stood out by simply not following the theme, like this Irish fantasy:



I enjoy the displays that create a convincing illusion of the real the same way that I enjoy the dioramas at the Natural History Museum.

This display of a landscape at night won a prize for best outdoor lighting design. May I ask, is this possible? I think it was the only display concentrating on outdoor lighting. The colors changed: blue, purple, green, red, yellow, blue, purple, green, red, yellow, blue...




There were displays that were simply in a category all their own, like this one. Daffs in glass bottles, over fluorescent lighting.




Some were informative and dry, like this one revealing the "how we do it" of rooftop sedum.
Get yours today!



The Italian-themed displays briefly gave way to the fashion-themed. Maybe the most photographed display of all, the floral fashion shoe collection.



Lord help us, but this tree attracted a lot of attention. Was it dead, then painted? Killed, then painted? Colorful as it was, I just didn't see the attraction. I think the entire display, which had forced bulbs, cactus and succulents, and evergreen shrubs won a prize for most unusual design concept.



Maybe its because I had never been to a flower show, or maybe its my overcritical nature, or is it the art-school arrogance, or maybe my NYC snobbery, or my unwillingness to simply let go, or could it be my fear of death, but I do not see myself returning to the Philadelphia Flower Show for awhile.

Thanks to Ellen Spector Platt at Garden Bytes for awarding me these tickets. Despite my critique, I enjoyed the chance to get out of town and see the show (and on my birthday no less).


A Pot to Pea In





I put the peas in their pots, outside, cold or not. It was chilly yesterday, cloudy, rain threatening, but I decided that if I wait too long, it will be warmer than they like. So in they went. In vegetable gardening, it is often tempting to be cautious, to fear failure because we have only one shot for getting it right this year. But really, it doesn't matter, its not like I'll starve. Its an experiment to learn, to know by doing. So in they go.


If you look closely, you can see the TP tubes under the pea plants. Apparently pea seeds like to be planted directly into the garden, but I didn't do this. In order to protect the plant while planting them, I peeled off the paper tube on the lower portion, but kept it together on the upper portion. This seemed to work out fine.




Broccoli starts have been getting bigger, all have well-developed sets of leaves. I think they will go into their planter by this weekend. Right now, however, they will remain in the cold-frame day and night. Behind you can see the failed "winter-sown" broccoli. Better luck next time. The great advantage of starting seeds in your window is that they sprout quickly and you can get a jump on the season. Winter-sown will work, but there is not much of this jump.





Pure As The Driven Snow





I was watching Jon Stewart on David Letterman the other night and they got to talking about the quality of a New York City snow. How its good for the first 15 minutes, thereafter your kids are licking gray icicles hanging off the bumper of a cab, yellow snow is a prized for its freshness.

Yesterday I went out to look at the side yard where I plant the vegetables in boxes and I took a look at the gray snow still about. I thought, well this is just catching a fraction of all that soot, debris, exhaust, whatever it is that is out there. We breathe it in, daily. Maybe it has little consequence, but who wouldn't choose purity over this?




Today is the day, the first official day of warm spring. The sun is out, the temps about 60 right now. If I weren't going to the Philly Flower Show to enjoy spring indoors this weekend, I'd be out in the garden pruning roses and cleaning pots, and probably planting my snap peas on Sunday.
Enjoy it!


No Upcoming Compost Give Away


There will be no compost giveaways at any facility of the NYC Dept. of Sanitation system this spring and most likely next fall. Last fall, the DSNY did not collect leaves, the major component of their compost. Until our financial situation improves, I don't think composting will be a part of our municipal programming.

We'll have to do it ourselves. Find an empty lot in the neighborhood, begin a block-wide collection of vegetable food scraps, leaves, grass clippings, coffee grinds. Distribute to those who want it on the block. We're on our own now and this could be a good thing.



Warm Weekend Coming



The tipping point is near. The snow will melt, save a few dark pockets here and there -a memory, a reminder of what has passed. I will put out my pea shoots, now almost 10 inches tall, and my broccoli starts will go out too. The tomatoes have been seeded and are in their window.

I think it will be too warm to place the starts in the cold-frame, they would fry in there. The starts will live on the ground and it should be warm enough for them to overnight outside. I'll be away at the flower show in Philly, that gaudy celebration of the winter's end and the coming of spring. I'll report back. 


Snow Day


spirea in snow

Well, the weatherman called it. What a gift. I work at a college, and I knew late last night that they would be calling a snow day -all buildings closed. We had a lot to accomplish today and the students have a big project due tomorrow. This really screws with that! But as I put on my shoes to head outside I thought, wow -when weather slows life down there are so many other things that can be accomplished simply because you cannot do what is planned, like going to work. I now have a whole day. Here's what I am doing:

Drinking way too much home brewed coffee. I am wired, I feel dizzied. I am cooking many meals for the week in a much more thoughtful way than I would with only a Monday morning to accomplish this. I had a group critique yesterday evening, so I am allowing myself to not use this time for the studio, I'm being domestic -staying in. I'm going to put up those coffee mug hooks that have been loitering around. I am going to clean some. I've already cooked the broccoli rabe for one dinner, moving onto a sardine dish with red peppers, and going to make fennel seed meatballs later. I wrote two 99 word stories for Garden Rant. I'm posting here as well. I'm going to research growing mushrooms and figure out how to get a lower rate on our cellphones. Oh, and I am going to get those tomato seeds in pots and in the window.

No snow, then I'd have been at work at 10am. Its how to make the money, but monolithic -look at that diverse list of accomplishments!

Beyond all that, the land needed this moisture. We received 2.98 inches in January while normal is over 4 inches. This February we received .86 inches, where normal should be around 3 inches. March normally has around 4 inches of rain, frozen or not. We can count on about and inch of rain from this storm as 12 inches of snow equals 10-12 inches of snow. So good for us.

Of course, why not plant vegetable seeds on such a wintry day? Tomatoes anyone. I have five varieties to plant this year, conservatively planting two or three seeds for each variety in their starting pots.


I'm glad I didn't set out the growing snap pea plants too soon or it'd look like this.




I'm glad I've only been planning the vegetable garden, not planting it!




Giving new meaning to the name "cold-frame." I'd say about 10 inches of snow on there.




The cat is bugging me, wants attention, doesn't get this staying at home thing.